Amber

Our Country, Right or Wrong

June 19, 2008 | america, american ideals, democracy

W. Thomas Smith, Jr. writes in Town Hall about Stephen Decauter, a great American hero, and the meaning of the words above.

Despite his myriad other battles and adventures that were every bit as dramatic as the burning of the Philadelphia, Decatur is best known for his 1816 toast to the nation at a dinner party in his honor. Raising his glass, he said, ‘Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country right or wrong.’

It remains one of the most endearing statements to those who love America’s history, traditions, and greatness.

REJECTING DECATUR’S WORDS IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Then there are those like Hollywood film star George Clooney and Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy who today have their own takes on Decatur’s words.

Clooney dismisses them outright.

In a recent interview for The (U.K.) Guardian, Clooney said, ‘My country right or wrong means women don’t vote, black people sit in the back of buses and we’re still in Vietnam. My country right or wrong means we don’t have the New Deal. I mean, what, are you crazy? My country, right or wrong?’

Kennedy spins them his way.

Addressing Congress after the first Iraqi elections in 2005, the Senator said, When America is at its best, our deeds match our words. But many of us feel we haven’t done that in Iraq. We care about our country. Stephen Decatur famously said, My country, right our wrong. But others through the years have said it better – our country right or wrong. When right, to be kept right. When wrong, to be set right.

There is, of course, a clear distinction between Decatur’s and Kennedy’s statements.

Decatur’s utterance was aimed at infusing all Americans with a bit of the soldier sailor commitment to all things: It is a sense of we are in this thing together, no matter what, right or wrong. That doesn’t mean we as Americans don’t endeavor to right our wrongs, but it does mean we should stand together despite our shortcomings as a nation. And we should do so because America’s greatness  and what we each have gained personally from that greatness  far outweighs America’s shortcomings.

Kennedy’s statement was more divisive, interjected with his own negative opinions about Iraq, and spoken at a time when armed American troops were in the field. It was in fact a statement first made by German-born Carl Schurz, a Civil War-era U.S. Army general turned Senator, and later editor-in-chief of The New York Evening Post.

Schurz’s version of Decatur’s toast includes a qualifier  which Kennedy prefers admitting wrong-doing prior to any wrong-doing; subtly suggesting that there is wrong-doing afoot; or suggesting that the nation by virtue of the fact that not everyone is of Schurz’s or Kennedy’s mind, is going to commit misdeeds in the future.

Decatur, on the other hand, was expressing unwavering devotion to a nation that  in addition to its offerings of freedom  had nurtured his life’s calling and that of so many millions of others then and yet to become Americans. Perhaps Clooney, Kennedy, and their ilk might reflect on the words of Decatur  not Schurz’s cynically amended version, but Decatur’s pure statement of loyalty, affection, and gratitude that simply cannot be improved upon. Nor dismissed.